Media: Murdoch’s Empire is Scorch, Terror Bombs in Nigeria

These are certainly not the best of times for the media industry, especially in Britain and Nigeria where a Parliamentary inquiry has indicted a much respected Octogenarian media mogul and terrorists unleashing bombs on media houses respectively.

The British Parliament after several weeks of probe into the infamous telephone and email hacking by now rested News of the World’s (NoW) and other media outfits of the globally renowned media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, slammed the Aussie with a damming verdict: “not a fit person” to head a media company.

That is a very audacious and damning statement against such a global figure.

The Parliamentary committee with compiled the report notes that Murdoch “turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness” as his media empire virtually stole into individual and corporation’s phone voice-mails, emails and bought their way into the otherwise “impeccable” British Bobby (Police).

For a society that expresses human freedom and dignity, such sentiments and strong wordings in a Parliamentary report about a man who has done so much for the British economy and society was rather hash.

Professor George Brock, head of journalism institute at London’s City University expressed similar sentiments when the Voice of America (VOA) spoke to him.

“I think the report has taken one or two people, including me, a bit by surprise because you can be declared unfit to hold a broadcasting license if you are, in the phrase in the law, ‘a not fit and proper person,” said Brock.

The principal target also appears to be Murdoch’s 40 per cent holding in the highly successfully, perhaps Europe’s largest cableTV channel, BSkyB (British Sky Broadcasting).

It was BSkyB’s involvement with the English football that has brought an otherwise drab football league into one of the most successful global brands in sports marketing.

The BSkyB has ensured that the English Premier League players are about the best paid in the world of football – although not necessarily the finest players.

Manchester United and Arsenal (due principally to the shrewd business application of its French manager, Arsene Wenger), are about the only clubs ranked among the financially solvent in Europe.

In Brock’s eyes, the damning report could lead to the octogenarian stepping aside for others to take charge.

 Even then, his eldest son, James Murdoch is also in the eye of the storm in the UK as head of the News International operations.

Like the eldest Murdoch, James at his several appearances before the Parliamentary Committee denied knowledge of every sinister move by the News Corp staff at obtaining information.

“One of the outcomes that people have always considered possible is that Murdoch, who is now aged 81, might have to step back from control of the company. I do not think he particularly wants to do that. But there has to come a moment sooner or later where he is going to step back. And it could be that the scandal is going to get so bad that it’s quite possible that he could step back, yes,” said Brock.

BSkyB issued a statement last week saying it was a “fit and proper” establishment. The satellite broadcaster noted that it was liaising with UK broadcast and communication regulator, OFCOM on one of the committee’s statements on “whether BSkyB is and remains fit and proper to continue to hold its broadcast licenses.”

BSkyB said would continue the process of “engaging with OFCOM in this process and continues to believe that it remains a fit and proper license holder, as demonstrated by its positive contribution to U.K. audiences, employment and the broader economy, as well as its strong record of regulatory compliance and high standards of governance.”

The scandal has led to the resignation of Jeremy Hunt, special adviser to Adam Smith, the UK’s Culture Minister. Hunt was accused of leaking documents to aid News Corp’s bid to take total control of BSyB.

While news of  the terrorist group, Boko Haram bombing notable media house like ThisDay and others rent the air last week, Nigeria’s National Assembly remain ordinary to the issue. It has not raised any panel of inquiry to the attacks on journalists and media houses, neither has it called on the security chiefs to step up or resign.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian journalist remains endangered specie: he is hunted by the state for being not hiding truth, hated by the society he serves for being corrupt and targeted by criminals for not being fair.

The import of the British Parliamentary Committee’s report and the reverberating effects should dawn on Nigeria which has held several Parliamentary probe reports without any consequential effects on the society.

Severally, the National Assembly has held probes into activities of telecom regulatory framework and operators’ business modules only to be consigned to the file cabinets.

Senator Ike Ekweremadu, deputy president of the Senate last week decried the activities of the MDAs which have no clearly defined boundaries of operation leading to conflicts.

He specifically lambasted the Nigerian Communication Commission, (NCC) and the National Environmental Standards and Regulatory Enforcement Agency (NASREA), two MDAs that recently went to the gutters over the regulation of telecom infrastructure.

The Senator who spoke through a representative at the 2012 Beacon of ICT Awards & Distinguished Lecture Series organized by Nigeria CommunicationsWeek said the two chambers of the National Assembly would look at ways to correct the laws setting up the MDAs to prevent further operational conflicts.

How far this would materialise depends entirely on the Nigerian Parliament to act!